[01] Nasir A. Muhammad, School of Medicine, Faculty of Medical Science, University of Sulaimanyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq.

Background: Coronary artery disease continues to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, a reliable and reproducible non-invasive diagnostic test for the detection and grading of coronary artery stenosis is multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT) coronary angiography. The presence of coronary artery calcium (CAC) is almost 100% sensitive for the presence of atherosclerotic coronary plaque and increasing calcium scores are associated with an increasing likelihood of both obstructive disease and severity of coronary artery disease (CAD). Objective: To see the significance of absence of calcification in the coronary arteries and it’s correlation with the degree and the frequency of coronary atherosclerosis. Patients and methods: This prospective study was carried out at CT-angiography department in Slemani cardiac specialty hospital, Kurdistan region/Iraq from Nov. 13th 2013 to Aug. 8th 2014 in total 118 sequential patients (Their age range was between 40-78 years, with an average age of 53 years. 79 cases were female and 39 cases were male) were underwent computed tomography coronary angiography scanning (CTCA). Results: According to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 21 (SPSS) Regarding the calcification and its relation to the atheroma: (among the 118 cases with zero calcification, only 4 cases showed presence of atheroma (3.39%) and among them only in one case the atheroma was significant, which means less than one percent (0.85%) of the cases showed significant stenosis that needed intervention). Conclusion: Absence of CAC is highly sensitive for exclusion of coronary artery atherosclerosis, but it does not totally exclude it and most of the degree of the stenosis (if present) is non-significant.

Coronary Artery Disease, Coronary CT Angiography, Coronary Calcium Index

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